Magic Trip
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: August 5, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
59
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
10
Negative:
0
Watch Now
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Portland OregonianShawn LevyAug 11, 2011
The film is a lively and absorbing document, filled with jaw-dropping materials, such as an actual audio recording of Kesey's first LSD trip in a Stanford University lab. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeMark FeeneySep 1, 2011
It's the movie "Yellow Submarine'' should have been but didn't know how to be. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsAug 26, 2011
Neither as magic nor as trippy as the culture quake that it documents, but it's a valuable flashback and a pleasurable contact high. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaAug 18, 2011
It's the lysergic soap opera going on among Kesey, Neal Cassady, and various pals, scribes, spouses, and hangers-on piled onto the rainbow-hued school bus that's at the heart of this rollicking road pic. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleAug 4, 2011
The period footage shows all the principals, including Neal Cassady, who was only 38 but looked 52. Ken Kesey emerges as the film's hero - he is presented as a great American adventurer, the psychological equivalent of Lewis and Clark. Maybe that's not as ridiculous as it sounds. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanAug 4, 2011
It's like seeing the birth of the '60s, with great moments (including Neal Cassady doing speed-freak monologues). Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerAug 12, 2011
The result may have value to '60s sociologists, ethnologists, superannuated hippies, and Kesey fanatics, but for the most part what is on view is a jumble of scenes featuring pranksters getting high on grass and LSD. Read full review
65
MovielineMichelle OrangeAug 4, 2011
I'd say you had to be there, but over the course of Magic Trip we learn that the majority of the people who were there didn't want to be there. Read full review
63
New York PostLou LumenickAug 5, 2011
It's basically left to the viewer to figure out the historical significance of this drug-fueled odyssey. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineNick SchagerAug 1, 2011
At its best, Magic Trip evokes the freewheeling, idealistic, psychedelic vibe of an era's origins; at worst, it's a film in which people narrate their own druggie home movies. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckAug 5, 2011
The filmmakers' fidelity to their source material is admirable, but more historical context could have made this Trip as illuminating as it is magical. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanAug 5, 2011
The title's accurate; there are lots of minor but magical moments, like witnessing the accidental invention of tie-dye. Read full review
60
Time OutKeith UhlichAug 2, 2011
The directors rarely go beyond the experiential to provide larger, lasting insight into the journey's generational and historical importance. As such, the comedown from this Trip is a real bitch. Read full review
60
Village VoiceJ. HobermanAug 2, 2011
What it lacks, perhaps unavoidably, is a sense of the cosmic Now; the movie recovers, without exactly illuminating, a "long, strange trip" that seems all the stranger as it recedes into the past. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubAlison WillmoreAug 3, 2011
In spite of this honey-toned self-documentation and some trippy visuals from the Imaginary Forces studio, Magic Trip is about as fun as being the only sober person at a party. Read full review
55
NPRMark JenkinsAug 5, 2011
For those already somewhat familiar with the subject, the directors' distillation of these 40 hours of film will expand their knowledge - if not their consciousness. But other viewers may spend the whole movie wondering exactly when the merry magic is going to kick in. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovSep 15, 2011
Magic Trip comes off nearly as scattershot as the events it depicts, which is a major stumbling block. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesMark OlsenAug 13, 2011
Gibney and Ellwood struggle to create context for or make much sense of the vibrant hodge-podge of material that they excavated from the archives of Kesey, who died in 2001. Read full review
50
The New York TimesStephen HoldenAug 4, 2011
Magic Trip is the cinematic equivalent of a yellowed scrapbook whose pictures are accompanied by sketchy captions created after the fact. Read full review
40
Boxoffice MagazinePete HammondAug 6, 2011
Sadly, the documentary just doesn't have enough coherent passages to make anything about this now seemingly ancient journey compelling for contemporary audiences. Read full review
More From This Movie

59 Critic Reviews

tbd User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL